1789: The Revolutions That Shook The World
By David Andress
Published by Abacus (2008)
Review by Cardinal Cox

1789: The Revolutions that Shook the World (Amazon.co.uk)

Write Dope on Pnuk part 87

1789 saw three nations at the brink. America was struggling to create a constitution that could bring the thirteen colonies (plus settlers outside those areas) together as a single nation. France was stumbling into revolution. In Britain, the instability of the monarch was pushing more power into Parliament. This book looks at all of this and more.

America had also, at this time, to devise a policy for dealing with the indigenous nations that it was coming up against in its expansion westwards. The British Empire was marching into the varied cultures of the Indian sub-continent. France had its own Imperial aims that were continually bringing it into conflict with its neighbours across the Channel.

For the poor of whichever nation both slavery and steam-powered industrialisations were increasing poverty and drudgery. Expressions of disquiet in Britain can be read into both the Abolitionist movement and even the mutiny on The Bounty.

What also came across in this book are the random chances that affect history. If the weather of the previous winter had been milder, would the French Revolution have happened?

The end of the book is a chapter on how the three nations (and the rest of the world) stood nine years later in 1798. It might have been interesting to carry the comparisons further, to 1897 and even 1978.

Interesting book on one of many pivotal years in the history of the world.

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